Online Training Software Comparison

LMS system

Before jumping into online training software comparisons, you have to know the components to what makes up a training management system. An LMS is a learning management system used to deliver organizational training to employees. Generally, an LMS system is housed in an HR department.

Traditionally, LMS software is SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) compliant. A SCORM LMS is a learning management system software equipped to take outside content and compress it to be compatible for a company’s training system. This means that content has to be created outside of the LMS, then transferred through SCORM, and delivered through the LMS. Some LMS programs are web-based, and some are computer based.

A computer-based LMS is designated to solely to the computers the learning system has been downloaded on. This can become a problem as a company grows. The more employees that come aboard and the more training lessons you need, the less memory and computers you have. This can also restrict learners from learning in their most comfortable setting.

Online LMS

A web-based LMS, or an online LMS, uses the internet and the power of the cloud to organize and store learning information. Online training system can sometimes be confused with the online learning system definition. An online training system is the processes and actions in which a company instills on executing online elearning from the learner’s perspective. An online learning system is the actual system used to publish and disseminate learning from an administrative end. This generally includes a type of elearning software as the main tool for use.

Some online LMSs take the produced form of company wikis. These are pages online that describe company messaging and give learners the content they need to get by. With that said, there’s no way a manager can track if a new employee has read and is versed in the material unless they take the time to sit down and quiz the employee without the material at hand.

At Lessonly, our web-based training software, once purchased as an e-learning LMS, not only sets the framework for a company’s online training system, but allows administrators to treat it as an online course software, i.e., it acts as an online course software, however you choose to build, organize, assign, and track learning.

As an already large, established business with an elearning, SCORM-compliant system in place, you may be thinking, “It’s too late to go back now.” But really, you’re not going back. You’re moving forward.

A web-based elearning software, like Lessonly, will save you copious amounts of time and resources. You could take one day to transfer all of your training content from your SCORM LMS or Google Docs and in turn save time, days even, when it comes to the logistics side of distributing and learning content. Time is not the only resource you’ll be saving on. A great elearning system can save a company from hiring more training personnel or having to seek outsourced training assistance. You can build content specific to your brand and business process. An elearning system that’s flexible can allow anyone to create focused material for others. For example, a great elearning software, even though ran by someone in HR, can provide access to a sales director who wants to create really concise material that a teacher in HR may not be able to elaborate on. With that said, the sales director can share this content with the sales team and any other department that must be informed on new information or is simply curious.

Here’s an example that hits home too. At Lessonly, we have weekly industry update. This is a lesson that’s distributed to the entirety of the company. It works somewhat like a newsletter but includes quizzing and free-response questions to elicit feedback and new ideas. This allows every department to learn what’s happening in the industry and where (department-wise) it’s happening.

Top Learning Management Systems

The best learning management systems are the ones that are intuitive in teaching and engaging in learning. With that said, a web-based learning management system is becoming the new norm. An online elearning platform takes away the time and financial cost of tangible learning materials. Furthermore, the best online training software out there is the one that lets your team teach and learn without worrying about how much ink is left in the printer or making a mistake you can’t erase while filling out a form in onboarding. Elearning gives managers the opportunity to worry less about new employees getting the information and focus more about employees believing in the company message and mission.

Online Training Software Comparisons

To find web-based training software reviews, look online at places that have the sole purpose in collecting and distinguishing differences between software, like G2Crowd.

A great online training software comparison starts with the person (and their company) in the market for one. With learning software, you won’t have to outsource training and will save valuable resources. You’ll also be capable of making training personable. Here are a few tips to begin the process in searching for the right elearning software and how to use online training software comparisons to your advantage:

1. Know what you want – if you don’t know the first thing about a learning management system, write down all the things you think you need. More often than not, you’ll find LMSs offering more features and functionality than what you initially wrote down. This is never a bad thing, as long as your list is being covered.
2. Seek out testimonies – Reading user testimonies about a software is going to help put a personal perspective on finding the right elearning software. It works a lot like word of mouth in that people are genuinely being quoted, and although you initially may think they’re biased, you will always find room for improvements. However, it’s important to notice why someone chose the software they did. Most testimonies have pros and cons to a product. With that said, though elearning software may have the same ends, the means play a big role in efficient training. Find a similar use-case testimony. Likely, those testimonies will steer you in the right direction. Each company you look at will probably have some great elearning software testimonies on their site, but reading review sites is also beneficial to avoiding bias.
3. Test them if you can – If you’re really pumped about a software, you should be able to try it. At Lessonly, we offer a free two-week trial. If you’re down to two brands of software, having a free trial to experience as a user can be a huge deciding factor.
4. Make the call…the phone call – If you’re looking at a software-as-a-service, at this point, you’ve compared software, listened to what other people have said, and you’ve even tried a few out. The last thing to do is inquire. Call the company up. Talk briefly and clarify any existing questions you may have. Likely, a sales or service rep will want to ask you questions about your needs. That’s fine and you will most likely discover needs you didn’t realize before, but the important thing here is the communication at hand. The company you want to go with is the company that can be patient with you, and the one that will assist you in every step of the process, even after your purchase.

This process can surely help you decide what LMS system is right for your company. When you’re ready for the next steps, use the software comparisons to raise development questions on the product. After a purchase, you can jump right in and start creating content.

Create Online Courses with Lessonly

With whichever software you choose, we hope you have some freedom with creating. For the sake of learning to create online training for employees, we’ll use ourselves as the example. With Lessonly, you don’t have to worry about how creating an online training course might be equivalent to writing a training manual. It’s not! With Lessonly you can create online training easier than you would construct an elearning powerpoint — except it’s easier and has the potential to be much more entertaining.

How to create online training courses in Lessonly is as simple as clicking the “+ New” button under the “Course” heading. From there, you can break your training topics up into lessons. For example, say your customer service department needs to be trained on communication methods. You would label the course so, but then break down that broad topic into lessons with great content and quizzes. Topics could include coverage on phone etiquette or dealing with conflict. If you’ve taken the time to create online training videos, you can incorporate those within the media mix to reinforce and emphasize points. Lessonly is not an open source software, so there’s no coding that makes you feel like you’re the one that has to create online training software. And many modern LMSs are like this.

Lessonly uses widgets to help you incorporate content with ease. Whether it’s using a YouTube video or just throwing in a funny GIF for laughs, we’ve got you covered. With a traditional LMS, that content has to be built outside of the learning system and then formatted to be SCORM-compliant. We’ve taken that step, condensed it, and united it with the platform itself, all the while cutting out SCORM entirely. To paint a picture, Lessonly is like powerpoint, except the creation tools aren’t overwhelming and you never have to worry about file limit of the lesson itself. Oh, and you can track who has read it.

Lessonly provides the tools right on the platform to create online learning and build online courses in ways you couldn’t think simpler. After you build online training for one department, you can start to create online courses for a new department.

Getting more with Lessonly

Training has always been essential to getting new hires onboard. But now, within fast-paced industries with competitive behaviors, it’s necessary to keep everyone on the same page and moving forward. Great elearning makes that possible.

We’re big fans of the flipped-classroom approach to learning. That is, give your learners time to learn in their best environment, and when it comes to for in-person training, if you so choose to have it, instead of you lecturing with a powerpoint for two hours, you can let your learners be the lecturers. Let them exemplify the information and methods they learned. This not only drives retention, but it motivates learners to be the best employees they can be. In addition to this approach, as a manager, you’re allowed more time to really learn your employees’ strengths and weaknesses and in turn, nourish them. No longer is a leader just a person on a soapbox, it’s a person who builds boxes for their entire team to stand upon. Elearning takes care of necessary learning, so that the leaders within a business can spend more time with the ones they’re teaching. Efficient elearning practices make room for efficient mentoring.

Lessonly is grateful to provide clients with the learning tools they need to teach users near or far. As a company, instead of flying remote employees to headquarters for a full week of training, you can use Lessonly to train from afar. All lessons live on our servers, so you never have to worry about reaching a storage limit. This opposes computer-based learning software, which requires a download to each computer being used to train. Lessonly lets you create all the courses and lessons you need to get your team up-to-speed!

We also have a client experience team and a creative learning manager on deck to help new and existing clients with any questions they may have while using Lessonly. Interested in trying it out? Check out our tour. Use the steps mentioned above to help with your training software comparison.